Media Releases

Young civic leaders add voice at CivicAction Transportation Debate on April 2

April 2, 2014

TORONTO, ON – As we near the Ontario Bud­get, Civi­cAc­tion con­tin­ues its Your32 cam­paign to increase invest­ment in our region­al trans­porta­tion net­work by giv­ing stu­dents and young peo­ple a voice in the great trans­porta­tion debate.

On April 2, the new CEO of Civi­cAc­tion and Pres­i­dent of Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to will host “From the Board­room to the Dorm Room”, a dis­cus­sion with youth lead­ers from the four major polit­i­cal par­ties (Young Lib­er­als, PCs, NDPs and Greens) on how we deliv­er a bet­ter dai­ly com­mute for stu­dents and young peo­ple across the region.

This next gen­er­a­tion has the moti­va­tion and influ­ence to get trans­porta­tion mov­ing in our region:

  • More than 1 in 4 first year U of T stu­dents spend an aver­age 16 hours a week* com­mut­ing to and from cam­pus. That’s well above the 16% aver­age at oth­er Ontario uni­ver­si­ties*, and well above the aver­age of 6.8 hours a week** spent by com­muters gen­er­al­ly in the Greater Toron­to and Hamil­ton Area (GTHA).

When: Wednes­day, April 2nd, 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Where: Vivian and David Camp­bell Con­fer­ence Facil­i­ty, Munk School of Glob­al Affairs,
1 Devon­shire Place, Toron­to

Who:

  • Mer­ic Gertler, Pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
  • Sevaun Pal­vet­z­ian, CEO, Civi­cAc­tion
  • Mat­ti Siemi­aty­c­ki., Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor- Geog­ra­phy and Pro­gram in Plan­ning, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
  • Mod­er­a­tor: Mary Wiens, Journalist/ Pro­duc­er- CBC Radio One Metro Morn­ing
  • Youth rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the four major polit­i­cal par­ties:
    • Alan­na New­man, Pres­i­dent- Ontario PC Youth Asso­ci­a­tion
    • Jesse­ca Dudun, Anglo­phone Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Direc­tor- Young Greens Coun­cil
    • Lau­ra Anonen, Cen­tral West Rep­re­sen­ta­tive on the Ontario New Demo­c­ra­t­ic Youth Exec­u­tive
    • Michelle John­ston, Pres­i­dent- Ontario Young Lib­er­als

Quick Facts:

  • More than half of first year U of T stu­dents com­mute each day – 57%*
  • The aver­age per­son in the GTHA spends 82 min­utes com­mut­ing every day — 6.8 hours a week.**
  • There are 32 min­utes a day at stake as we decide whether to invest more in how we get around. It is the dif­fer­ence between the aver­age com­mute time if the region­al trans­porta­tion plan The Big Move is fund­ed and built over the next 25 years (77 min­utes), ver­sus the com­mute time if no com­pre­hen­sive sys­tem is in place over the same time (109 min­utes). **

*Source: Nation­al Sur­vey of Stu­dent Engage­ment

**Metrolinx

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About Civi­cAc­tion For the past 10 years, the Greater Toron­to Civi­cAc­tion Alliance (Civi­cAc­tion) has brought togeth­er senior exec­u­tives and ris­ing lead­ers from all sec­tors to tack­le some of our region’s tough­est social, eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges. Civi­cAc­tion sets a non-par­ti­san agen­da, builds strate­gic part­ner­ships with orga­ni­za­tions, and launch­es cam­paigns, pro­grams and orga­ni­za­tions that trans­form our region. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it: www.civicaction.ca, @CivicActionGTA

Media Con­tact: Kee­sha Bell, keesha.bell@civicaction.ca or 647–267-4997